Guinea-Bissau’s deposed President Umaro Sissoco Embaló has arrived in neighbouring Senegal following his release by military forces that toppled his government this week, Senegal’s authorities have announced.
It follows negotiations by the regional West African bloc Ecowas to secure his transfer amid rising tensions in Guinea-Bissau.
Senegal’s foreign ministry said in a statement that Embaló landed in the country “safe and sound” on a chartered military flight late on Thursday.
The military in Guinea-Bissau has already sworn in a new transitional leader, Gen Horta N’Tam, who will rule the coup-prone country for a year.
Wednesday’s coup came a day before authorities were due to announce the provisional results of a presidential and parliamentary election.
The military has already suspended the electoral process and blocked the release of the results.
It said it was acting to thwart a plot by unnamed politicians who had “the support of a well-known drug baron” to destabilise the country, and announced the closure of its borders and imposed a night-time curfew.
Sandwiched between Senegal and Guinea, the coup-prone country is known as a notorious drug-trafficking hub where the military has been influential since it gained independence from Portugal in 1974.
Both Embaló and his closest rival Fernando Dias had claimed victory in Sunday’s presidential poll.
Dias was supported by former Prime Minister Domingos Pereira, who had been disqualified from running.
Government sources earlier told the BBC that Dias, Pereira and Interior Minister Botché Candé had also been detained.
The military junta has banned public protests and “all disturbing actions of peace and stability in the country”.
Tension remained high in the capital, Bissau, on Thursday, with most shops and markets closed as soldiers patrolled the streets, news agency AFP reported.
Earlier that day, Gen N’Tam, the Guinea-Bissau army’s chief of staff, had been designated the country’s new leader for a period of one year.
Gen N’Tam said in a speech that the military had acted “to block operations that aimed to threaten our democracy”.
Shortly after the swearing-in, the military reopened land, air and sea borders that were shut when it announced the coup.
The African Union (AU) and Ecowas have condemned the coup and called for respect for the constitutional order.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement that he was “deeply concerned” about the situation in Guinea Bissau, calling for an “immediate and unconditional restoration of constitutional order”.
Guinea-Bissau has witnessed at least nine coups or attempted coups over the last five decades.
Additional reporting by BBC’s Wycliffe Muia
